Sepass – Songs of Y-Ail Mihth Hardcover book

Translated from the oral tradition by Chief William K’HHalserten Sepass and Sophia White Street

Illustrated by Lynne Grillmair
Produced by Longhouse Publishing – Ann Mohs

Chief William K’HHalserten Sepass (1843-1943) was the las of the great orators; a storyteller, a philosopher and a spiritual person, carefully selected and trained as a young boy to carry the traditional teachings of his culture, the knowledge of his land, and the stories and songs of the beginning of the world and how the lands were shaped by the emotions and adventures of mankind upon the earth.

Surviving the devastating effects of western diseases, witnessing the influx of European settlers, two worlds wars, the automobile, the iron lung, telephone, running water and the Indian residential schools, Chief Sepass witnessed the demise of his culture and language. He knew that these teachings would not survive in their original oral tradition. He saw the different priests of the newly formed churches come and go, but they always read from the same book. He noticed these stories from the Bible being given great respect and ceremony. It was this method, a written form, that Chief Sepass saw as the only way to save these priceless poems for his people; that knowing them, Indians would remember their greatness for all time.

142 pages